This man’s neighborly good deed inspired a green army of kindness volunteers
As we're all well aware, the pandemic changed the game. Before COVID hit, Brian Schwartz had a high-flying job with an advertising company in New York City. But when a bad situation turned catastrophic, he was one of many to be laid off. And for Brian, the timing could not have been worse.
"It was a stressful time between having an eight-month pregnant wife at home, a dad battling brain cancer, and everything else going on in the news. It felt awful," he says.
With a lot of free time on his hands, Brian needed to do something productive, and he turned to mowing lawns for stress relief and exercise.
"I just decided to create my own good news, really just as a time filler," says Brian. "Just wanted to help neighbors, just keep myself busy mentally, physically. Obviously, we weren't going to the gym for a few months, so I found it to be a good workout therapy, and it felt nice."
Watch the video to see how Brian's mission to mow lawns became a kindness movement.
Brian offered his lawnmowing service free to seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities. And as word spread of his good deeds, the local media began picking up on the story. The attention got Brian thinking. There was clearly a broader need for what he was offering. So, he decided to create a website, Iwanttomowyourlawn.com, and a kindness movement was born.
"I started to hear from volunteers, people that might have either been furloughed or laid off," says Brian. "They just happened to have landscaping equipment, and a means to transport it around. And so, we started to disseminate out tasks to people in the area of Northern New Jersey."
From then, the project took on a life of its own. Pretty soon, Brian had a throng of clients needing help with their lawns and an army of volunteers ready to offer their services for free.
"It's about the human connection," says Brian. "So, you know, ranging from 18-year-olds in college, all the way up to recent retirees. A broad spectrum of people are helping out, individual people, landscaping companies, organizations, schools."
Brian currently has 263 volunteers across 41 states. And as news of his organization spread, he also began to attract donations to help with operating costs, which prompted him to turn the service into a nonprofit. He even caught the attention of Hollywood, earning a spot on a TV talk show.
"Drew Barrymore donated $5,000 to our organization, so that helped," he says. "It was just a surreal experience. You know, everything from walking in and just sitting in a green room to sitting alongside the star herself was just surreal. Couldn't believe it."
Despite the celebrity stamp of approval and the media attention, Brian and his team still provide their services for free with an emphasis on simplicity.
"So, clients reach out to us through a few different mediums. They contact us through voicemail, through the website, through social media, and through email. Within the last three months, we've received over a thousand voicemails from across the USA. The feedback has been amazing. Just people being super thankful.”
As the organization has evolved, Brian has expanded his offerings to include services like tree removal and snow shoveling. But he believes the benefit of what his team does goes way beyond the practical.
"We are not providing them only financial relief," he says. "It's mental and physical relief as well. And we're not only hearing feedback directly from the people we're helping, but their neighbors thanking us for helping keep the community. And I'm even receiving occasional letters from people that we might not even help, but they might have just been at the time looking for some uplifting news."
Brian's initiative has turned a rough situation into a triumph. Though he now has a contract job to pay the bills and the pandemic has somewhat subsided, Iwanttomowyourlawn.com has become a passion. Not least of all for the reciprocal benefits kindness brings.
"It stimulates my mind, my body, my soul, just helping others," he says. "It's a really good feeling. I feel like I'm doing something that has some meaning and purpose."
